Canal Schemes.

In the “good old days” of the pre-war era-which incidentally, were (from the railwayman's point of view) in many ways very bad old days-enthusiastic devotees of inland water transport never tired of clamouring for the increased canalisation of Britain. Nowadays little is heard of the alleged need for new inland waterways for the conveyance of freight, and of the so-called “strangulation” of the canals by the railways. Public opinion to-day is far too strong at Home to allow of any scheme being seriously considered which has for its object the construction of costly inland waterways in a country so well served by rail and road. Across the Channel, however, proposals are again being advanced for embarking upon expensive canal schemes regardless of the fact that the railways are in a position to carry out all essential services with equal, and generally speaking, greater efficiency and economy.

The grandiose plan for canal construction in Germany is being stoutly opposed by the Berlin railway authorities. The remarkably able fashion in which the new German Railway Company (established under the Dawes scheme) is tackling the problem of transportation in the important territory it serves, has previously been referred to in these Letters. In theory the idea underlying the Government's canal construction policy is to afford work for the unemployed; in practice it is being found that canal construction can only absorb a very small proportion of unskilled labour. Bearing in mind the rapid progress effected in every branch of railway working in Germany in recent times, and the wide improvement plans of the German Railway Company, it would appear the most foolish of policies to set up at this stage a system of competing canals, and it seems almost inconceivable that the hard-headed authorities at Berlin will allow themselves to be led away by the pleadings of the small but very noisy “canal group,” who call for costly new waterways in territory which could be far more efficiently and economically served by rail.